


The Gift

by YassBanrion



Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Alec Lightwood Feels, Alec Lightwood-centric, Immortal Alec Lightwood, Immortality
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-11
Updated: 2019-11-11
Packaged: 2021-01-29 00:23:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21401113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YassBanrion/pseuds/YassBanrion
Summary: The Seelie Queen gives Alec a choice, die or become immortal.
Relationships: Magnus Bane & Alec Lightwood, Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood
Comments: 6
Kudos: 213





	The Gift

**Author's Note:**

> Got super motivated after the PCA win and wrote this! 
> 
> Hope you enjoy it :)

Alec sat in the damp cell underneath the seelie court. He was sitting on bare ground, the soft muck cushioned his aching body, but he felt no comfort. 

He was dying. 

He had tried to come to some sort of truce with the queen, tried to mend some of the bad feeling. But it didn’t work, she had betrayed him. The meeting was a trick. His guards had tried to protect him but his last memory is them falling to the ground in agony as his vision swayed and went dark.

He hadn’t seen her since the day of the meeting, he had woken up in this cell and he had been alone since. It had only been a couple of days, he knew because he had barely any stubble, but it felt like eternity. 

How did he know he was dying? He could feel the pulse of poison in his veins. He’d been poisoned before, he remembered the agony, the searing pain that blurred his vision. Magnus wasn’t here to save him this time. 

He wanted so badly to be held by his husband. To feel his skin on his, to sink into the the smell of sandalwood and feel safe. Magnus made him feel safe in a way nobody else ever could. His heart ached at how he must be feeling right now, how frantic with worry he must be.

Alec remembered when Magnus was sick, the pain of thinking he might lose him. The painful nightmares he has, even now, that have him frantically waking up his husband to make sure he’s still breathing. 

Alec was deep into his somber thoughts when a door, which definitely was not there a moment ago, swung open. He recognised the man, he was a consort of the Queen, had accompanied her to meetings in the past.

He said nothing, he wouldn’t resort to begging or pleading, that got you nowhere with the fair folk. 

The man broke the silence, “the queen requests your presence”. He said it like it was a request. Like Alec wasn’t a prisoner but merely a guest. He just nodded and got shakily to his feet. Dizziness rushed over him in a wave and he almost fell, but the fae had grabbed his arm. 

He looked him in the eye as he steadied him. Alec was sure he could see a flick of regret, but it was gone as quickly as it came. He helped Alec as they walked through the passages of the court. 

It was dark, and damp, it reminded Alec of a grave. The feeling of death and pain that emanated from the very walls. This was not a place of beauty, it was a facade to cover the decay. Like the queen herself used beauty to hide her rotten core. 

He thought about the chances he had given her, and she had thrown each and every one back in his face.

This pounding hatred swam along his veins with the flu like ache of the poison. He felt light headed and adrift, like he was drowning.

He came back to himself as they entered the throne room. He had to blink to get used to how different it looked. There was no throne, just a small table, one you might see outside a coffee shop in Paris. 

There were two chairs, one occupied by the queen, the other Alec was gently placed.

“Mr Lightwood, so nice of you to join me”. Alec just stared at her, he didn’t have time for her games so he said nothing. She smiled at him. The kind of smile that reminded him of Camille. Like a snake trying to lull you into a false sense of security, before it struck you. 

“Well I suppose preamble is probably a waste of precious time”, she kept smiling, and as she was talking she placed a small glass on the table. The liquid was magenta, faintly glittery, with a saccharine smell. It reminded him of a cocktail Magnus had once made him. His heart gave another painful thump at the thought.

The queen wasn’t saying anything, just smiling at Alec and eventually he relented. “What is this?”, they both knew his question had more than one meaning.

She leaned in closer to him. She smelled like fermenting flowers, like when you crush them up as a child to make perfume. It made Alec’s stomach turn.

“It’s an antidote to the poison I gave you. But it comes with a price”. Alec remained silent. She didn’t seem overly bothered by this and continued. “The antidote will cure the poison. But it will also give you something else, a gift, or a curse, depending on how you see it”.

She paused again waiting for Alec to take the bait, but he didn’t, he knew she’d continue on. She enjoyed these little games.

“This.... gift..... is something that many look for. What so many wander into the dangerous lair of a vampire to seek out”. Alec’s blood ran cold. “This potion will cure the poison, and it will make you immortal”.

Immortal.

The word hung in the air between them. 

Alec’s head began to pound. “Wh-why would you want to make me immortal?”. 

“Oh it’s just a little game, to pass the time”. 

Alec didn’t believe her, he was smart enough to know she had a nefarious reason behind this. But he was also not foolish enough to think she would tell him now. It could take her years, decades, centuries to take advantage of whatever plan she had.

So they sat there. Alec looked at the potion. He had 2 choices. Die, never seen Magnus again, or his family. Leave behind everything. His work, his people. His life. 

His other choice, live forever. A life he had always been adamant he didn’t want. How would he survive losing his family, losing Jace. But he couldn’t help the small bubble of excitement at the thought of forever with Magnus. 

His heart pounded in his own ears as the questions swam around his brain. He felt sick at the unfairness of the situation. He didn’t want to die. He was too young, he wasn’t ready. 

Fear. It was fear of the unknown that tipped his heart. Die, and he would be erased. Would he go somewhere, or would death be simply darkness? Drink this potion and live. He could go home, be safe in Magnus’ arms and figure out the impending suffocation of what he had done later.

He looked at the queen. She was still smiling at him. 

He hated her. 

She spoke once again. “It’s up to you, take it and go home, live forever, don’t take it and die today”. 

He picked up the drink, his hand was trembling, he cursed this show of weakness. 

“If I drink this, you will allow me to go home, you will not keep me here?”

The queen nodded at him, still wearing her small smirk.

Who knows what the price will be in the future. 

But whatever price would have to be worth seeing his family again.

He tipped the drink into his mouth and swallowed, gagging on the sweet taste that burned its way down his oesophagus. 

His vision swayed and before he could even form a coherent thought he blacked out.

———-——-—

Magnus sat in a chair beside Alec’s bed, he’d been floating somewhere between wakefulness and sleep since they’d gotten him back. Magnus and the others had camped in the infirmary after the silent brothers had left and refused to leave his side. 

The Seelie guards who had returned him explained the situation, and it was confirmed by the brothers after multiple tests. Alec’s body was, in essence, the same, he was still a Nephilim, still bore the marks. It was his cells that had been altered, they healed at a rate seen only in warlocks. 

They were baffled at how the queen had come upon such a potion, and they had prodded Alec and taken samples until Maryse had snapped and told them enough. He would report to them when he had woken up. 

That was 2 days ago, and he was still unconscious, bar some occasional stirring. 

As Magnus sat there he kept coming back to one singular thought. Immortal. Alec was immortal. He wouldn’t age, he, like Magnus, could potentially live forever. He couldn’t believe it, he could almost taste the hope it gave him.

But he also felt incredibly selfish, for being happy. This is not what Alec wanted, Magnus knows that. He knows he would never have chosen this life in another scenario. 

Magnus was shaken from his thoughts as Alec started to shift. Everyone in the room sprung into awareness but nobody moved. Being surrounded helped nobody waking up in this situation.

Alec started to mumble incoherently. Until one word came out clear. Magnus. Alec reached out his hand, a reflex, as he wasn’t fully awake. Magnus heart stuttered at the knowledge that Alec immediately wanted him. Magnus held his hand and squeezed as Alec blinked himself into awareness. 

Magnus let out a breath he didn’t even know he was holding when he saw Alec’s blue eyes staring up at him. He wasn’t sure if his husband would look different, seem different. But he could tell, looking in his eyes, immortality or not this was his Alec through and through. 

Alec looked at him for a minute before then looked turned to something else, as he remembered why he was in the infirmary. “Magnus”, his name came on something near a sob. He closed his eyes and moved into Magnus’ arms, and Magnus held him, whispering a mantra to him.

I love you, I love you, I love you.

————————————

The next night Alec woke up in his own bed. His heart beating against his chest. He had had a nightmare but he already couldn’t remember what it was about.

It was the middle of the night, moonlight poured in through the open curtains. He was nestled into Magnus’ back, the warmth of his body was glorious against the nippy December air.

He gazed out at the sky, wondering what it would be like to live somewhere that you could see the stars every night. New York was never dark enough. 

He tried to keep his mind on that but it shuddered back to everything that had happened. He couldn’t wrap his brain around the idea of being immortal. He felt no different, he looked no different. But he was different.

He tried to envision himself 100 years from now, still 23 while everyone else was gone. He would never age, never get wrinkles or grey hair, never change. He could still die, he wasn’t invincible, but he would have the advantage of being young and strong forever.

He thought he would feel devastated, and he was sad, and angry. Angry that the choice had been taken from him. He knew he would need far more time to process this, that he was likely in shock, but he couldn’t help the small flutter of excitement at the idea of having more time. More time with Magnus. More time to make the changes he was so desperate to make. 

He thought of Magnus, of Catarina, of all the people he would now share eternity with. They had survived the losses of immortality and they had come through, with their help he could too.

He was so caught up in his thoughts he didn’t notice Magnus was awake, his eyes shining golden in the dark. Alec pressed face into his shoulder, inhaling the scent of sandalwood; the scent of home. “What are you thinking about?”, even though he knew exactly what Alec was thinking about. Alec huffed a small laugh against his shoulder. “The weather”, and Alec could feel the vibration of Magnus laughing. 

Alec blinked as the light came on and Magnus shifted to look at him. Magnus breathed deeply and spoke, “I know that this isn’t the life you wanted. I know that forever isn’t the marriage you signed up for”. Alec could see the worry, the pain and the glimmer of hope in his husbands eyes and his heart throbbed. 

“Magnus, the one thing I am completely sure of is you. I am terrified. But I took that potion to come back to you, not just because I didn’t want to hurt you, but because I wasn’t ready to say goodbye. To you, or to my life. I love you”. 

He didn’t give Magnus a chance to reply before he pulled him in for a kiss. 

He pulled back and buried his head back into the crook of Magnus’ shoulder. He breathed in his scent, and let it calm his beating heart. 

He knew there would be a fallout. Many would not accept him, and he would have an uphill battle in the shadowhunter world.

The queen would strike, of that he was completely certain. 

He would have to say goodbye to his family someday. 

There was so much that was going to change, so much he would have to think about, but for tonight, he allowed himself to just hope.


End file.
